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Friday, 8 January 2010

Not only did the farmer bring his tractor up the road and clear the snow for us, he also polished up the sun and popped it back in a clear blue sky.

We walked up the hill to the village to see how people were doing - here is the church.And we just got back as the sun was beginning to sink on the hill behind us. Time to shake off the boots and enjoy a nip of ginger wine, put the dinner on and curl up with my book for an hour. I am rereading Fernand Braudel's book - The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II - one of my favourite books of all time. I learnt more love of history and history writing from M Braudel than I did in 12 years of school. Here is a lovely quote for you about the the transfer of costumes from east to west along the stepping stones of the Mediterranean islands:'It was by way of Cyprus and the sumptious court of the House of Lusignan, that there came to the west, more slowly than the light of some stars reaches the earth, the costumes of the ancient bygone China of the T'ang dynasty. The long pointed shoes and the hennins, which date a period of French history so well that they immediately suggest the frivolous court of Charles VI and the Très Riches Heures of the duke of Berry, had been fashionable in China in the fifth century. And this distant heritage was passed on to the west by the kings of Cyprus.' In case you were wondering what a hennin is - here is a young woman wearing a conical hennin, painted by Hans Memling 1485-1490.